Conventional pool cues have an elongated shaft. A pool cue tip generally is attached directly to the end of the cue shaft by an adhesive. A ferrule surrounds the end of the pool cue shaft to prevent the end from splitting. A leather tip piece is about six millimeters (0.236 inches) thick and serves as the portion of the pool cue which strikes the pool or billiard balls. The leather tip piece extends beyond the ferrule so that it can be used to strike balls. The leather material is a somewhat resilient buffer material between the ball and the shaft and provides sufficient adherence to the ball surface to allow the ball to be spun.
The condition of the leather tip is important for optimal performance. However, it is difficult to maintain the leather tip sufficiently for accurate and reliable pool playing. Preferably, the tip should have a slightly convex top surface with its annular side wall being slightly tapered from the top surface down to the ferrule. If the tip becomes overly rounded, a reliable striking area for the top surface of the tip is reduced, thereby resulting in problems with reliability, accuracy and shot making. If the leather tip becomes flattened, its resilience and adherence is generally decreased, as is the ability to strike a pool ball off center to provide spinning to the pool ball. When flattened, the leather tip also generally becomes hard and smooth, losing its tackiness.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved device for maintaining pool cue tips.
The pool cue tip sharpening device is a multifunctional tool designed to maintain the leather tip of a cue stick used in the games of billiards, pool and snooker. The purpose of the pool cue tip sharpening device is to properly shape and maintain the cue tip for optimum performance by a player.
The pool cue sharpening device includes a cue tip dimpler, a tip shaper, and a cue tip trimmer/burnisher within a block. The cue tip dimpler within the block includes a recess having a dimpling wheel rotatably mounted on a first axis. The dimpling wheel has protrusions. The tip shaper includes a concave recess within the block. The cue tip trimmer/burnisher is within the block. The pool cue tip sharpening device combines a number of devices, each of which performs a specific task, into one hand held tool, including the following:
A dimpler is a device designed to produce small, uniform indentations or xe2x80x9cdimplesxe2x80x9d on the surface of the leather tip in order to allow the tip to absorb larger amounts of chalk when the tip is xe2x80x9cchalkedxe2x80x9d by a player. The concave shaped wheels centered in a recess of the tool have a regularly textured surface that are designed to provide a number of uniform impressions or xe2x80x9cdimplesxe2x80x9d on the surface of the leather cue tip. The rotation of the tool over the cue tip, with the application of hand pressure, allows the textured surface of the wheels to xe2x80x9cdimplexe2x80x9d the cue tip into which dimples the chalk is optimally absorbed by the subsequent usual and normal rotation of a chalk cube by the player. The cue tip dimpler within the block can include a recess having one or more dimpling wheels rotatably mounted on a first axis. The dimpling wheels have protrusions around the circumference of the wheels.
A trimmer/burnisher is a device designed to both trim the side of a leather cue tip in order to maintain the edge flush with the ferrule and burnish the side in order to produce a hard, durable edge. This part of the tool includes a conical cavity into which the cue tip is designed to be inserted, which when rotated under slight pressure, trims the side of the leather cue tip flush with the cue tip ferrule. Once trimmed, the tool polishes or xe2x80x9cburnishesxe2x80x9d the side of the cue tip in order to harden and shape the leather for better performance. A round shaper is an abrasive device designed to produce two different rounded shapes to the leather tip, known by players as xe2x80x9cnickelxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cdimexe2x80x9d shapes, reflecting the radius of the U.S. coins.
A shaper can include two abrasive concave hemispherical xe2x80x9cshapersxe2x80x9d designed to alter the shape of the leather cue tip to two different hemispherical shapes commonly used by players in a multitude of playing situations. In addition, one or more flat abrasive areas set on the side of the tool are designed to produce a flat cue tip, as may be required by the player.
The flat shaper includes an abrasive device designed to produce flat or flattened surface on the leather tip.
The pool cue tip sharpening device can be milled from solid brass or other various milled or cast metals. The device can measure ninety millimeters (3.543 inches) long, twenty-five millimeters (one inch) wide and thirteen millimeters (0.512 inches) high into which the dimpling wheels and abrasive parts are fitted. The abrasive surfaces can be made by the application of various resins onto which loose abrasive material is embedded or with the use of precast abrasive parts.